Public Domain Day 2020: These 95-Year-Old Works Are Now Free to Use | Samantha Cole

"In the US, everything copyrighted by artists and authors in 1924 is entered into the public domain as of January 1, 2020.

If you've been anxiously waiting to use "Rhapsody in Blue" or black-and-white Harold Lloyd films, these—and thousands more works—are now free to use, share, and repurpose in the public domain. These works would have gone into the public domain in 2000, after the 75-year term was up, but the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act put a 20-year freeze on releasing copyrights.

The celebration of Public Domain Day as an unofficial holiday is credited to Canadian public domain activist Wallace McLean, who created it with support from lawyer and political activist Lawrence Lessig. "You are free to make use of this heritage in any way you want, by publishing, digitizing, compiling, translating, adapting, dramatizing, or treating the material in any other way," McLean wrote in a 2004 email, archived here. "It's yours to enjoy and share with whomever, whenever, in whatever way you want."..."